First off BIGBIG Kudos to Legionair/Jason. He Did a wonderful Job this year.. he worked very hard. And this was my first Con, and the past two years. i wasnt there last year... Ive been told, and seen it improve dramatically.. Its a very comfortable, friendly Con, I hope it stays that way.

So Tonight was the AMV Contest..... I really really wish I could give a good list, but I was really distracted, so I can give you a little lowdown.

Goldenboy -Somebody to Love- Queenhttp://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=18985 This Video Won, And Forgive me... Its late.. but I cannot remember what exactly for.. I know it was a very cool award... and very much deserved. Soul Bro entered a couple videos.. And worked hard. This TRULY is a favorite and its just freaking Hillarious. So Bro, post the exact name of what your award was for.. It rocked, I stood up 3 times. This Video was one of those times.

Best Adult/Hentai Video - Mexican Juniors Moneyshot - I think Ive already told the world this winner. I refuse to hand out that terrible kind of smut so you have to ask MJ for the linkage.

As For the Action Vid that won.. Someone please post it. Im hurting my head for not remembering.. And anyone else. Im doing my best to remember. The Action Vid..MUCHO was great though. Action and Comedy had the best vids overall in them, in my opinion.

Best Drama Video - Tutterbutter -Cowboy Bebop -Coldplay - Clocks - I dont really have much to say about this. I know i wasnt crowd favorite in this area because it was another lame Bebop Video. And I got good crowd reaction. I was talking to Marlex, and Actually not even paying attention when they announced my name.. Till Marlex looked at me... and was like.. you won. So David Violence totally Messed up my last name.. and it takes me like 20 seconds to get up.. outta sheer shock. And i felt horrible, because there were a few other videos which were really really great. Especially The Escaflowne One. Most of my feedback was That Cheerleading scene was cool, and it had a incredible story line and kept to it the whole video. /me shrugs - thank you. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=15751

There were some great videos, and I met alot of great people.. And Enjoyed the whole experience very much. Some Very Talented people who put alot of heart into thier work. Please Add more stories/awards if you can..... its 5am.. im tired. But i wanted to give props where they were due.

/end
Tutter

------ "And I have such a deep admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys."

It’s Sunday morning and I’m about to head back out to the convention space. Before I do that I wanted to take a few moments and fill in the details that Tutter left out. I also wanted to address a few issues that occurred last night. I’m doing that now so that I don’t miss any details.

Before I list off all of the winners, I want to cover something that I feel is equally important. And I don’t want it to get lost underneath the list of winners, so I’m covering it first.

Let me start off by saying that I’m not happy with what happened last night. Those of you who were there probably already know what I’m talking about. I can go into details about it all, but I won’t. I’d rather have those in attendance describe it, if they wish, since their perspective will obviously be different than mine. In addition, my going into it would only seem like I’m trying to offer excuses for it all, and I’m not. What happened last night was unacceptable.

Everyone who participated put days, weeks, and probably months of work into their videos. They deserved to be played properly, as the artists involved intended them to be seen. I put at least three weeks of work into getting the contest up and ready to go, starting from the day the first CD-R reached my mailbox.

Like I said, I’m not going to go into details yet. I’m not going to offer excuses. For those of you there, if you have questions over what happened last night and would like answers, then please ask. You can ask me here, in public, or privately thru email. That’s your choice. I will not offer excuses about what went on behind the scenes, but I think you at least deserve an explanation.

For the most part, everyone’s video played as the artist intended it to. For the most part we were free of technical and scheduling issues once the contest started rolling. But there are three people that I wish to offer a public apology to. They didn’t ask for this and I hope this doesn’t turn an unwanted spotlight on them, but I feel the need to mention it regardless.

Thoughtsbleed –
His “Your Closest Friend” video started off the contest. Unfortunately due to technical issues started without audio for the first ten seconds of the video. This was unexpected and unacceptable. I started with his video because I felt it was a very strong lead off for the Drama category, the reaction of the audience seems to have confirmed that. And obviously I did not want to start the contest off on a mixer board issue.

Jesse & Jesse –
“Don’t Waste Your Youth.” That was their video and I don’t know what I can say. I can’t apologize enough about the way it was presented. I should have caught the audio issues, I didn’t. I dropped the ball. For those of you present at the contest, their video *did not* play the way it was intended. I should have caught it and I didn’t. I won’t have an answer for why that happened until I get home and have a chance to go through the work files, but I intend to do just that. There’s nothing that I can do to fix this, the contest has passed, the moment is gone, all I can do is apologize and try to figure out what happened so that it doesn’t happen to them again and hopefully doesn’t happen to anyone else either. Right now, the only excuse I can offer is that I had way too much on my plate and not enough time to do it all. That’s the only thing that would have let such a problem slip past me undetected.

I want to say how impressed I was with all of the entries, as well as all of the videos that were submitted this year. Last year we reached a grand total of 27 videos, I believe. All of which made it into the contest. This year we reached 51 videos, almost twice as many. 31 of them were submitted to the contest, 3 were disqualified and all of the remaining 28 played in the contest.

I will not offer any other comparisons between last and this year’s contests, except to say that it seemed obviously apparent to me that *everyone* involved seems to have improved drastically. Even after watching each video a dozen plus times while preparing the contest, I still sat through last night’s run and enjoyed them again. At least I enjoyed them when I wasn’t wincing from other issues.

My final point before I get to announcing the winners. Last night, immediately after the AMV Contest winners were announced, I resigned my AMV position with AFO. I’m making this public knowledge so that there is no going back on it. I will be finishing my commitments for this weekend and that will be all.

I have made the suggestion to management that David Violence should take over the reins if / when an AMV Contest is held at AFO5. David has already offered a verbal agreement that he would do it, but it remains to be seen whether management accepts my suggestion.

Last night (and Friday night’s) winners:

Best Adult / Hentai Video went to…
Mexican Junior’s “Moneyshot” using Bible Black to Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax.” I was somewhat paranoid about running this video, one for potentially going to jail for violating county decency laws or, two, offending our guests of honor who were sitting in the front row watching the contest. I was pretty relieved when the guests seemed to be enjoying it more than the audience was.

Best Editing went to…
Marlex’s “Together” using Vandread to Nine Inch Nails’ “We’re In This Together”

Best Technical went to…
Checkm8’s “Regrets” using Ruroni Kenshin to the Pet Shop Boy’s “It’s a Sin”

Best Concept went to…
Soul Bro Ryu’s “Somebody to Love” using Golden Boy to Queen’s “Somebody to Love”

Best Drama went to…
Tutterbutter’s “No Place Like Home” using Cowboy Bebop to Coldplay’s “Clocks”

Best Action went to…
Firedog’s “Chateau” using the End of Evangelion to “Chateau” from the Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack.

Best Comedy went to…
ZennMora’s “Dude, We’re Ninjas!” using Naruto to Sifl & Olly’s “Ninja of the Night”

I want to thank everyone for participating and later in the week I’ll post a full play list.

Was great meeting you guys and Tutter, thanks for listening to me critique your vid, LOL! Hope any advice was definetly helpful. You had an AWESOME first vid and I definetly look forward to you future work and was glad to have the chance to meet you. You seem like a geniune person and artist, so keep it up

Jason, SO SO sorry for how they screwed ya. The actions taken were rediculous. For those not attending, right after the drama track, 1/3 into the contest, they pause the DVD, flip on the lights, and get on stage to address a COSPLAY drama issue where a group was offended because their skit got cut early, bla bla, stuff we don't need to worry about here. Long story short, they then announce all the cosplay winners, art show winners, art quick draw contest winners (VERY SLOWLY I MIGHT ADD), then resume the dvd after a good amount of the room left due to the crap. Jason, you did a GREAT job. The AMV panels were good, the videos were all introed great, and everything you did was good, so you personally do not apologize, but I do feel some of your colleges do need to at least acknowledge that they may have offended the AMV creators and artists at AFO 4. I have a feeling that won't happen and my opinion won't go over well, but I don't think they'd like it if I pissed on their hard work either.

Anyway, great work with your AMV's guys and feel free to e-mail if you ever wanna chat or anything and definetly check out my other vids!

L8R
Checkm8

OH, and yeah, my pet shop boys video was so 80's, but it's an old idea I had and I just had to do it

This is more for Jason, but I figure all the other AMV artists should hear this as well...

Apparently the cosplayer's impression from what was told to them was that the AMV's at AFO were filler. Below is posted what I was told.

>>>>>
Well, just goes to show AFO isn't an AMV con. Personally they should never of had a drama in the first place (there was more to prove that none of it should've occured in the first place).
I asked someone at some point what they were doing till they said the winners for the cosplay (wanted to know if Tom won basically), and they said "Oh we're using AMVs as filler time"
So basically, AMVs are filler to AFO (least from that one person's pov).
overall, they should've shown random AMV's till they announced winners, then shown the winners of AMVs (so anyone who wanted to know who won, would be there anyway).
>>>>>

Problem with the last part is the judges were using audience reaction as an aide to judging everything. That does not work if you can't show the whole videos... Oh well Jason. Did you know your contest was filler? I guess the cosplay community thinks so...

You know, Legion said we were open to talk about this and maybe should.

First Off I thought it was rude. I had no big babysitter action for the AFO, so i had to bring my little daughter.... who i knew would sleep through the lights off and at least through 2 of the three categories....... Then POW the lights are thrown on, destroying the whole mood of the contest.. and the big PUBLIC service Announcement..

"YOU DONT NEED ALCOHOL TO MAKE YOU HAPPY"
Well im not trying to be funny or flame, but god I need alcohol to reasonably even enjoy cosplaying.. I dont like cosplaying.. Its alot of 14-17 year olds playing dress up.. and half of them arent even characters they are like people who are wierd.
And forget about I'd'ing for the Adult AMV contest... Men in Womens lingerie is pretty disturbing in itself...

it was rude, and alot of people got up and left and didnt even finish the amv contest because they thought it was over.. Cosplayers dont spend money infact most of them beg for it.. and eat pocky and sugar packets and think they are cool... AMV'ers actually go to workshops, go to dealer rooms and buy stuff to make thier videos.. Wow what a concept. Buying anime at a Con.. By the time a Cosplayer gets to a Con, theyve spent so much money on thier costume.. they dont have crap to spend..
Some costumes are nice, im not gonna wack on cosplayers.. We had 2 and half hours of main room.. We shouldnt have been interupted.... We shouldnt have been barged in on... I know people who come to cons just for dealers and AMV"s Not for Cosplay.. You know who comes to see Cosplay..
1. Cosplayers
2. People who need a good Laugh
3. Boys who wanna see girls in skimpy clothes and thats honesty for you..

I know sitting and chatting with the AMV creators quite a few felt like wow.. we are so unimportant.. That had nothing to do with Jason, or anyone involved with running the AMV area.. It was bad choices on the person who felt the need to do that.. Will I still enter and come next year of course..
I had a great time.. I wont let one little thing spoil, what alot of people put a great deal of time and effort into..
Legion - You are important and did a great job, I dont think anyone looks at this as your fault.. nor should they and if they do. let me kick thier butts!

And like My name and Video was up on the Big Screen during the WHOLE ordeal and cosplay winner announcements, it was free advertising and subliminal msging

/end

------ "And I have such a deep admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys."

Lots of stuff to cover. Let's see if I can remember it all. Some of these issues may not have been raised here, but I decided to address them here anyway. No sense replying all over the place and posting the same information over and over again.

[Disclaimer... I'm tired. I just got home. None of this should sound defensive. If it does, I apologize, but you may just be reading the wrong impression into my words.]

- AMV Filler
No, I was not aware that contest was considered filler. Or considered filler now. Obviously that wouldn't be my opinion. If it was filler, I wouldn't have spent three weeks getting the AMV Contest ready to play. On the other hand, as of Saturday night at around midnight, the AFO AMV Contest is no longer my puppy. What happened, happened. Life goes on, for better or worse.

- AMV Filler (Part Deux)
When the computer system wouldn't play the DVD-R, I had to resort to running back to the AMV Room to get my DVD player which I knew with 100% certainty would play the DVD. Because everything had to be rewired on the fly, there was no time to rewire to play filler while the judges decided.

- Audience Voting
Despite what it's viewed as, audience reaction was not the only reference we used to decide who won the contest. We did use it as a one of the basis' but it wasn't the only one. Why did I decide to go this route? As I explained before the contest, for AFO3 I photocopied 2,000 AMV Ballots. The viewing room was filled with over 1,000 people. We handed out 1,500 ballots. When I counted the results, we received only 300 back. That means that the balloting process was obviously flawed and something new had to be attempted.

- Replaying the Winners
If we had replayed the winning videos, it would have taken 20 to 30 more minutes to do that. I doubt anyone in the audience was willing to sit thru such an experience.

- Apologies
Apologies may not be necessary in some of these issues, and they probably won't fix what has been done, but I'm going to make the effort anyway. It doesn't cost anything to try to be nice to people and usually ends up costing quite a bit of sanity just to be mean. I know which issues are my fault and which I had no control of (or prior knowledge of). So maybe apology isn't the correct word. Sympathy? Yes, that might be better. I have quite a bit of sympathy for those AMV creators that feel wronged by what happened. I know how I would feel in your place, so I can empathize quite easily. And I don't want to seem like an uncaring administrator who just gives an "f--- you, deal with it" reaction.

- Apologies (Part Deux)
To the three people I apologized to above, I take responsibilty for both issues. For Thoughtsbleed's issue, I should have forced a test of the DVD before the contest. But scheduling and my body just didn't allow it to be possible. It's no secret that I never wanted a computer in the viewing room, which is why I insisted on keeping AFO3's AMV Contest on S-VHS. What I should have done Saturday night was bring my DVD player to the main room, but I didn't. When Friday night's adult contest went fine, I assumed that a DVD burned in the same manner (which the Saturday contest was) would be fine. When the contest started without audio, I should have hopped up and insisted that it be restarted, but it the stress of all the other situations, I just didn't have the time to think that clearly.

For Jesse & Jesse's issue, it was entirely my fault. I should have caught the fact that the audio was not playing properly. It played fine at home and seemed fine when I burned the DVD. When it got up on the big screen I realized that it was wrong. I still feel bad about this, but there's nothing else I can do at this moment other than feel bad. The deed is done and nothing can change it. I'm more pissed with myself for not catching it than anything else.

- 24 Hour Room
The 24 hour room became a standard room because on Friday night, the room became nothing more than a flophouse. When the cleaning people had to come in and wake everyone up, we caught hell for it. One or two people falling asleep accidentally while attempting to watch all night, that would have been okay. People camped out with pillows and covers was completely out of the question. Not to mention the general security issue. If something would have happened to one of these sleeping people, then my neck would be on the line. I like AMVs, but I don't like them enough to go to jail for providing them. More importantly, I don't want someone getting hurt, robbed, or worse while in the room under my jurisdiction. So the 24 hour room had to go.

- The Finale
The past two years I've attempted to improve the contest. Comparing the quality of the entries from last year to this year should show that I was partially sucessful. The events of the weekend under cut my efforts. I have no desire to start from the rebuilding again, that's why I stepped down. If I feel I can't reliably provide the videos in the way the artists expected as well as with a certain amount of respect for their invested work, then I won't attempt to do so.

So as of closing ceremonies to AFO4, I'm no longer affiliated with AFO or AGA. There's no bad blood on my side of things. I have nothing against any other staffers for what happened. Decisions, right or wrong, were made. Just like I would prefer not to be crucified for any poor decisions I've made, I'm not going to hold a handful of decisions as the sum total of another's person's character.

I hope to remain friends with the other AFO / AGA staffers and I hope they don't take my decision to part ways as a personal insult. I also hope that they don't assume that I wish them any ill will.

"If you believe in yourself, eat all your school, stay on milk, drink your teeth, don't do sleep, and get your eight hours of drugs, you can get WORK!"
Paperskunk:...PENIS!!!!!!!!! GIANT PENIS!!!!!!!!!! ERMAC WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!!!!! GIANT JUICY PENIS!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH MY EYES!!!!!!

It most definately is. I didn't expect to see the Marillion project subject come up though.

With my responsibilities to AFO4 completed and the ones to AGA finished, I can devote much more energy to the project.

For those of you who are already involved, look for an email from me sometime later in the week.

For those of you who don't know about it, but are interested, this is a long form AMV project using Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood" album. The final version of the project will be burned to DVD and is planned to be delivered to the fan club next year.

tutterbutter wrote:And i felt horrible, because there were a few other videos which were really really great. Especially The Escaflowne One. Most of my feedback was That Cheerleading scene was cool, and it had a incredible story line and kept to it the whole video. /me shrugs - thank you.

The interruption in the AMV was, excuse my french, FUCKED. It pissed me off, not to mention that the Cosplay thing could have been done on Sunday instead of interrupting an already established contest.

I know that people would have been pissed off if we interrupted their Cosplay contest over AMV results. It was already annoying as it was to interrupt The Beer Song.

The techinical difficulties were fine, a little tiredsome, but fine.

I just wished that the AMV contest could have ran a little smoother.

But by the time the Comedy category rolled along, all of that was forgotten.

Its said to see you go, Jason, but I can understand some of the reasons.

And my ranting biatch tirade stuff:
1) I wish the con could have ran a bit smoother
2) I'm still pissed about my friggin panel being pushed to 3
3) I'm sadden that NO ONE GOT MY DO AS INFINITY VIDEO
4) That's it, I'm never doing an AMV to Phantom Quest Again
5) I'm shocked someone thought it was a new anime